From the campus of Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan, this is the Radio Free Hillsdale Hour, bringing the activity and education of the college to listeners across the country.

Here's your host, Scott Bertrand.

Hello again, everybody, and welcome in to another edition of The Radio Free Hillsdale Hour.

On this episode, we'll talk with Dr. Kathleen O'Toole, Assistant Provost for K-12 Education at Hillsdale

College, about National Charter School Week.

Marion Smith, executive director of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation,

will discuss China and COVID-19. And Dr. Timothy Doltz from Hillsdale's physics department will tell us

about the research being conducted on Hillsdale's campus by Hillsdale students. We're joined by Dr. Kathleen

O'Toole, Assistant Provost for K-12 Education at Hillsdale College,

overseeing the college's K-12 efforts, including the Barney Charter School Initiative.

Dr. O'Toole, thanks for joining us.

Hey, thanks for having me.

We talk in the midst of what is Charter Schools Week across the country.

Can you tell us a bit about this national event?

Absolutely.

Well, for us here at Hillsdale College, Charter Schools Week, is a great way to bring awareness

to the fact that charter schools exist and that they provide families and teachers and school

leaders with a public option that allows them to provide a different type of education than might be found in a typical public school.

Here at Hillsdale, we work with classical schools, and we support a number of classical schools across the country by providing curriculum advice, a school leader candidates, and conferences

here on the college campus.

You talked a little about it there, but perhaps a broader definition or more detailed

definition of what exactly is a charter school?

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